Washington QB Demond Williams Jr. unlikely to play at Purdue
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 09: Elijah Brown #7 of the Washington Huskies throws a pass during the fourth quarter against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Husky Stadium on October 9, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Blake Dahlin / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Demond Williams Jr. is unlikely to start this week for the Washington Huskies at Purdue because of a rib injury sustained in Friday night's loss to Iowa,
Elijah Brown – who completed 28-of-39 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns in relief of Williams – would start if Williams can't play.
"We still have to do all sorts of imaging and everything else," head coach Jedd Fisch said on Monday. "So I’m not under the impression he’ll be playing this week based upon where he’s at physically, but I don’t want to predict the future either. We still have four days before we have to make that decision.
"Those injuries are ones in which you have to be able to play through it, you have to be able to have range of motion, you have to be able to have zip on the ball, you have to be able to do a lot of things to protect himself, if we were to play him."
Fisch wouldn't comment on if Williams would start, if deemed healthy.
"I don't know," he said. "That would be pretty much a hypothetical at this point because I don't envision being at that spot to have to make that decision. If he is, then we'll talk as a staff and see how healthy he is. I don't want setbacks. I don't want a situation where if he barely can make it back and then we start him and then wind up losing him for weeks after that."
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Brown will take the reps at quarterback with Washington's starting offense this week in practice with Williams still recovering. He was hit hard by a pair of Iowa defenders on a third down scramble late in the second quarter and did not return to the sidelines after halftime.
"We wanted to make sure everything was OK in terms of nothing more severe than the ribs, and we needed to take care of him physically," Fisch said.
The offense was practically non-functional with Williams at quarterback for most of the first half. Williams completed 6-of-11 passes for 69 yards and was sacked four times. He had as many rushing attempts through sacks and scrambles as attempted passes.
Meanwhile, the offense took off under Brown for the rest of the game. Each of UW's three scoring drives under Brown covered at least 75 yards and finished with touchdown passes to Chris Lawson, Dezmen Roebuck and Mason James.
"i thought he did a great job of getting the ball out of his hands," Fisch said of Brown. "He found a primary read most, if not all, of the time. … Very quick decision-making. I thought he had really good command."
The game at Purdue is on FOX at 5 p.m. PT on Friday.
The Source: Information in this story came from FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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